Hacking USB Loader GX

[Kerpal335]

Hi there,

I'm not sure if anyone else has had this issue before but I looked around and couldn't find a solution. I've been using USB loader GX on the Wii for about a month now and I'm really loving it. I wanted to try using a new hard drive to load backups from but for some reason upon starting up the USB loader, during the "initializing USB drive" phase the loader will either freeze or I will get an error reading "Exception (DSI) occurred!".

The hard drive I'm using is a 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive and it is partitioned and formatted to have two drives, a 1.9TB FAT32 drive and the rest being on an NTFS drive. I copied over all my backups from the old hard drive onto the new one (in a wbfs folder) and cannot get USB loader GX to work with it, yet other things such as Nintendont work perfectly with the new hard drive.

USB loader GX is up to date and still works fine with my old hard drive, which was in a NTFS format, as well as a small USB flash drive formatted to FAT32 I tested it with.

I'm pretty new to all this and I'm not sure whats going on here. Is the problem that this 4TB hard drive doesn't work on the Wii version of USB loader GX or is there something else that I am missing?

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

[godreborn]

I think the problem with the drives is that it's 4GBs. afaik, the drive can't be larger than 2GBs partition or not. plus, I'm not sure if usb loader gx can even read multi-partitions.

 

[Kairu43]

Godreborn meant Terabytes.

 

[Cyan]

btw, I'm having a weird issue with saving. if I save, then place the content into a word document. it won't be double-spaced when I transfer it back. this doesn't happen on psx-place. also, whenever I save a large post, it creates all these extra bb codes in the post. it doesn't mess up the content, but you can no longer find what you want to edit. because of these two issues, I have to edit in word, transfer the content to psx-place, then copy and paste that on to here. it's frustrating. :-/

I don't use the "full/nice editor", I prefer using the old text editor, and you manage your tags yourself. don't let the forum mess your tags.
though, you don't have the smiley button, but just remember the one you use frequently.
you also don't get the automatic notification user's drop down list when typing @

or you can use the full editor in your preferences, and press the top-right icon to switch old/full editor.
I don't like the full editor because it's not a real "textarea". selecting a text put it in clipboard (thanks to auto-clipboard selected text on a webpage). It doesn't happen with a real textarea. you can't select a text to replace it with what you copied in memory, as that selected text will replace your clipboard memory. well, that's probably just me...

The hard drive I'm using is a 4TB Seagate Backup Plus Desktop Drive and it is partitioned and formatted to have two drives, a 1.9TB FAT32 drive and the rest being on an NTFS drive.

I think the problem with the drives is that it's 4GBs. afaik, the drive can't be larger than 2GBs partition or not. plus, I'm not sure if usb loader gx can even read multi-partitions.

The loader works with 4TB drives, and with partitions.
the loader works with MBR and GPT.

BUT, GPT has an issue for the moment. you can't make multiple partition if you use GPT!
the loader detects double the amount of partitions and tries to mount non-existing ones. (2 FAT32 and 2 NTFS, when it tries to access partition 2 it uses FAT32 library)
if you use GPT (because HDD >2TB), don't make multiple partitions.
just one BIG 4TB FAT32. (or two FAT32)

until I fix the GPT detection bug.
I wanted to do that last week, but work on the loader always end in unpredictable issues which make me spend more time on small bugs.



Maybe (not sure, I don't have one to test) a temporary fix is to prevent the loader from wanting to access the second partition.
don't put games or anything on your NTFS partition that the loader would need.
don't enable "multiple partition" option.

 

[cucholix]

Edit :
Surprise! I didn't expect it before 2018.
1269_mod2 with WiiU gamepad support
http://www.mediafire.com/?74jbrzozleqnk

It has some issue :
1. Stick's diagonals are not working. I don't know why. but at least, it works, you can move the cursor and press the buttons.
2. cursor speed is very slow, you can change the speed from 0.18 to 0.5 in the GUI Settings. I'll made an automatic WiiVC detection to do speed x5 without needing to change the setting manually.
3. still no channel mode. didn't had time to debug it. (it finds how many channel is on NAND, but can't read the title from it. Maybe ES_ is working, but ISFS is not in IOS255? network is also not in IOS255?)

improvement: it should boot even faster.

Pretty cool you guys got it working so quick
I guess emuNAND is not working with 255?

BTW it needs UNEO channel on vWii?

 

[Cyan]

no, emuNAND is not working, like USB. it would require a more "custom" IOS255. a compiled one, like hermes or waninkoko/d2x IOS.
currently, cIOS255 is only patches applied to the official fw.img, small patches to bypass or allows features.


To use gamepad support, you need to inject the forwarder.dol into a WiiVC channel.
you can use this automated tool : https://gbatemp.net/threads/release-wiivc-injector-script-gc-wii-homebrew-support.483577/
I couldn't make it work, so maybe you can have issues too. If you do, there is an alternative method (do all manually instead of using a script).

If you want to use both the gamepad and the wiimote, you need to enable the "wiimote passthrough" fw.img patching option.


Fix94, do you know why fw.img can't access the NAND's channel's title and system resources?
I have AHB access, but it can't get the themes files and titles of installed channels. missing ES or ISFS module issue?

 

[cucholix]

I believe networking is indeed working on 255 at least for what I see with people injecting Mario Kart Wiimfi.

 

[GreyWolf]

I have a suspicion that data isn't in the WiiVC firmware image. If the title running uses settings from the Wii U they probably left the legacy system code out like they did with the EHCI module for USB access.

 

[Kerpal335]

The loader works with 4TB drives, and with partitions.
the loader works with MBR and GPT.

BUT, GPT has an issue for the moment. you can't make multiple partition if you use GPT!
the loader detects double the amount of partitions and tries to mount non-existing ones. (2 FAT32 and 2 NTFS, when it tries to access partition 2 it uses FAT32 library)
if you use GPT (because HDD >2TB), don't make multiple partitions.
just one BIG 4TB FAT32. (or two FAT32)

until I fix the GPT detection bug.
I wanted to do that last week, but work on the loader always end in unpredictable issues which make me spend more time on small bugs.



Maybe (not sure, I don't have one to test) a temporary fix is to prevent the loader from wanting to access the second partition.
don't put games or anything on your NTFS partition that the loader would need.
don't enable "multiple partition" option.

Just wanted to say, thank you so much! I converted both my partitions to FAT32 and now the loader works great! All my games are showing up and the ones I tested work perfectly!

Also, my NTFS partition was empty and the multiple partition option was disabled when I tested the hard drive before and it didn't work. I just wanted to let you know since you haven't tested it that this does not fix the issue.

Thanks again for all your help and thanks to all the others that helped out as well! It is very appreciated and the weird celebratory dance I went into wouldn't have been possible without you!

 

[Cyan]

thanks for the test and your report.
sorry about this bug, I'll try to fix it (but I'll need someone with a GPT drive to do the tests )

just remember that having both FAT32 prevent the crash, but don't try using the 2nd partition in the loader until I fix it. I don't know if it could be a problem, but better safe than sorry

(too bad you didn't film your celebration dance!)

I believe networking is indeed working on 255 at least for what I see with people injecting Mario Kart Wiimfi.

yes, it's my fault.
I changed my router's from TKIP to WPA2/AES for the Switch (that's the only compatible mode), I didn't thought about editing the wiiu network setting too.

I have a suspicion that data isn't in the WiiVC firmware image. If the title running uses settings from the Wii U they probably left the legacy system code out like they did with the EHCI module for USB access.

when using WiiVC I can force the loader to not use the system font, lock banner layout (already done automatically because the resources are not loaded) and force it to use the rotating disc instead of animated banner.

this mode will be used only to launch gamecube games anyway (or NAND channels if I fix that). gamecube don't have animated banners like the Wii games, it's not a big loss (I know people have custom ones, but it's a choice ! vWii + banners, or WiiVC no banner but gamepad support)
that's a good compromise I think.
I'll see if I can set these settings temporarily, to not affect the loader if the user goes back to vWii to use it for wii games, so it doesn't affect the font/layout/GUI/pointer speed.

 

[GreyWolf]

It's just the font, icon frames and the lower portion of the banner screen that are loaded from the system menu. We can probably just replace everything except the font with regular PNG images.

 

[JacobM]

when using WiiVC I can force the loader to not use the system font, lock banner layout (already done automatically because the resources are not loaded) and force it to use the rotating disc instead of animated banner.

this mode will be used only to launch gamecube games anyway (or NAND channels if I fix that). gamecube don't have animated banners like the Wii games, it's not a big loss (I know people have custom ones, but it's a choice ! vWii + banners, or WiiVC no banner but gamepad support)
that's a good compromise I think.
I'll see if I can set these settings temporarily, to not affect the loader if the user goes back to vWii to use it for wii games, so it doesn't affect the font/layout/GUI/pointer speed.

Thanks for working on this Cyan. I won't have access to my WiiU for another ~2 weeks, but I can test things on a Wii! I think defaulting to the rotating disk view would be a good compromise when in WiiVC mode. NAND channels would be cool and theoretically should be possible (https://github.com/FIX94/wiivc_chan_booter/tree/master/source). Personally, I've migrated all of my purchases to WiiU Virtual Console so I could use my Gamecube controllers.

Do you think it would also be possible to also create a temporary setting to ignore Wii/EmuNAND titles so that the boxes don't get unchecked when accessed in vWii mode?

 

[GreyWolf]

Frigging Chinese pirates are repacking and redistributing my Streamline fork. I guess it's time to take it down and make it binary-only with AP measures just like the HBC and Devolution.

 

[Cyan]

that's bad, yeah, but you can't do much.
you need to keep your project opensource due to GPL.
if it's opensource, they could modify to remove the AP. but I'm sure they don't bother and just release existing files as theirs.

Do you think it would also be possible to also create a temporary setting to ignore Wii/EmuNAND titles so that the boxes don't get unchecked when accessed in vWii mode?

it's on my todo list, prevent wii from being deactivated on Wii/vWii if USB is not connected.
I can see what I can do while using WiiVC too.

oh, and thanks !
There is definitely a ISFS permission to patch in the IOS255, different than the one I'm currently using for hermes' IOS.
thanks a lot to Fix94, as always
static const u8 isfs_perm_wiivc_old[] = { 0x42, 0x9F, 0xD1, 0x03, 0x20, 0x00, 0xBD, 0xF0, 0x09, 0x8B, 0xE7, 0xF8, 0x20, 0x66 };
static const u8 isfs_perm_wiivc_patch[] = { 0x42, 0x9F, 0x46, 0xC0, 0x20, 0x00, 0xBD, 0xF0, 0x09, 0x8B, 0xE7, 0xF8, 0x20, 0x66 };


r1269 mod03 !
http://www.mediafire.com/?74jbrzozleqnk
Last min release before my holidays (vacancies, going to family, I won't be there next week).
I let you see what's fixed
thank fix94 for that, not me.

 

[cucholix]

r1269 mod03 !
http://www.mediafire.com/?74jbrzozleqnk
Last min release before my holidays (vacancies, going to family, I won't be there next week).
I let you see what's fixed
thank fix94 for that, not me.

Banner animation
Also, I dumped my NAND to emuNAND and it boots fine but it doesn't hook to the GamePad?
It doesn't hook the GamePad to my NAND installed channels either, even if I set game IOS = 255

 

[JacobM]

it's [on] my todo list, prevent wii from being deactivated on Wii/vWii if USB is not connected.
I can see what I can do while using WiiVC too.

oh, and thanks !
There is definitely a ISFS permission to patch in the IOS255, different than the one I'm currently using for hermes' IOS.
thanks a lot to Fix94, as always
static const u8 isfs_perm_wiivc_old[] = { 0x42, 0x9F, 0xD1, 0x03, 0x20, 0x00, 0xBD, 0xF0, 0x09, 0x8B, 0xE7, 0xF8, 0x20, 0x66 };
static const u8 isfs_perm_wiivc_patch[] = { 0x42, 0x9F, 0x46, 0xC0, 0x20, 0x00, 0xBD, 0xF0, 0x09, 0x8B, 0xE7, 0xF8, 0x20, 0x66 };


r1269 mod03 !
http://www.mediafire.com/?74jbrzozleqnk
Last min release before my holidays (vacancies, going to family, I won't be there next week).
I let you see what's fixed
thank fix94 for that, not me.

Thanks for considering it. Its a pretty low importance feature request, but deactivating (or even graying out) the Wii option on WiiVC may help newcomers who don't understand the limitations of WiiVC (IE GameCube games from SD cards only). The Nintendont and WiiVC threads have a fair amount of users asking about their USB stored Gamecube games not loading. I've always assumed this happened because Nintendont leaves "USB" in the loader on the file navigator/browser when booted from WiiVC.

Good eye! I can't believe I didn't notice the ISFS patch when I scanned through the source a while back. I didn't know ISFS existed until you and GreyWolf started discussing it recently. Glad you spotted the line!

YES! Thank you for the early New Years surprise! I'll do some testing on the Wii today to make sure everything is functioning normally.

 

[Cyan]

I think you are not doing it correctly. (answering to cucholix)

Gamepad support is only available if you launch USBLoaderGX using a WiiU channel Wii Virtual console (you know, the Wii games sold on eShop installed on WiiU menu, like Xenoblades chronicles), injected with USBLoaderGX's forwarder.dol
Doing that disables USB, Wii and emuNAND support*, because the WiiU channel contains its own IOS (IOS255).
the console does NOT load any slots from vWii, even if you have a cIOS installed in slot255 it will not be loaded or used.
the loader is no longer checking IOS255 (1269_mod01 did that, it's now doing a proper check to detect WiiVirtualConsole without looking at the current slot number)

having d2x installed in slot255 will not allow WiiU gamepad support either.
the gamepad support is a feature of the WiiVC games. it works only with injected games or homebrew launched from a WiiVC channel, and block any IOS reloading feature (no d2x possible!, so no USB or emuNAND possible)

unless there's a way to copy the gamepad support module into d2x and rebuild it (d2x v11 !) then, there's no way you can get Wii games with gamepad support when launched from the loader.
at best, you could get NAND channel with gamepad support, but only if the channel doesn't require a specific IOS : Miimaker gives an error if you launch it from USBGX. maybe other games are working, I don't have any to try.
booting NAND channel is slow, but it seems to work. the loader try to reload to cIOS, and the WiiVC blocks it. so the channel run on fw.img (the virtual IOS255).

 

[cucholix]

I think you are not doing it correctly. (answering to cucholix)

Gamepad support is only available if you launch USBLoaderGX using a WiiU channel Wii Virtual console (you know, the Wii games sold on eShop installed on WiiU menu, like Xenoblades chronicles), injected with USBLoaderGX's forwarder.dol
Doing that disables USB, Wii and emuNAND support*, because the WiiU channel contains its own IOS (IOS255).
the console does NOT load any slots from vWii, even if you have a cIOS installed in slot255 it will not be loaded or used.
the loader is no longer checking IOS255 (1269_mod01 did that, it's now doing a proper check to detect WiiVirtualConsole without looking at the current slot number)

having d2x installed in slot255 will not allow WiiU gamepad support either.
the gamepad support is a feature of the WiiVC games. it works only with injected games or homebrew launched from a WiiVC channel, and block any IOS reloading feature (no d2x possible!, so no USB or emuNAND possible)

unless there's a way to copy the gamepad support module into d2x and rebuild it (d2x v11 !) then, there's no way you can get Wii games with gamepad support when launched from the loader.
at best, you could get NAND channel with gamepad support, but only if the channel doesn't require a specific IOS : Miimaker gives an error if you launch it from USBGX. maybe other games are working, I don't have any to try.
booting NAND channel is slow, but it seems to work. the loader try to reload to cIOS, and the WiiVC blocks it. so the channel run on fw.img (the virtual IOS255).

Yeah, I boot it from Wii VC channel, I got GamePad support in menu but it get lost when launching a game (NAND channel game), but anyway, maybe it could possible inject a modified fw.img into the Wii VC.

I don't have use for it for nintendont, already have all my GCN/Wii collection on my Wii U HDD, maybe ULGX is not for me yet

 

[Cyan]

ah, sorry, I really thought you were using emuNAND channels (fw.img doesn't have the code to redirect from NAND to SD).

fix94's channel booter can launch channels with gamepad support? if it can, then USBGX will be able to do the same.
channel launcher really need some fixes. even on Wii.

 

[cucholix]

ah, sorry, I really thought you were using emuNAND channels (fw.img doesn't have the code to redirect from NAND to SD)

I think I did that? I marked the box to only display emuNAND channels, but yeah it needs d2x to work, if I just select 255 ULGX throws an error message. At least it can reload other IOS while staying on fw.img (or I think that was what happen)